Apparatus for the mass-production of moulded concrete elements

ABSTRACT

DEVICE FOR AN APPARATUS FOR MOULDING A CONCRETE ELEMENT IN WHICH HOLLOWS MUST BE PERFORMED BY PIN MEANS. A PIN MEANSCARRYING DEVICE IS MOVABLE RELATIVE TO THE MOULD BETWEEN A POSITION IN WHICH THE PIN MEANS ARE INSERTED IN THE MOULD AND A POSITION IN WHICH THE PIN MEANS ARE INA WITHDRAWN POSITION RELATIVE TO THE MOULD. ACTUATING EANS SHIFT THE PIN MEANS-CARRYING DEVICE BETWEEN SAID TWO POSITIONS AND A RELEASABLE LOCKING DEVICE LOCKS THE PINS MEANS-CARRYING DEVICE IN THE INSERTED POSITION OF THE PIN MEANS.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2.019,937 11/1935 Staples......................... (25/4l.SAUX) Inventor Roger Paul Sonneville 5 Rue Maurice Ravel 92 Saint Cloud, France United States Patent .1 m A9 5 4 2 M 5 2 ,T M m "m m mam i N 6 L 0 ml. n a E m VSmR F 35F5 56 6 99 9 11 l l/ 26 1 1 37 2 6O 8 30 9 69 2 23 l 817 676 999 Ill 9 3 3 m22m eeen mung" 7 -J JF o. d me Wmmm flafi AFPP HMJHHH 224333 Primary Examiner-J. Spencer Overholser Assistant ExaminerDeWalden W. Jones Attorney--Robert E. Burns ABSTRACT: Device for an apparatus for moulding a concrete element in which hollows must be formed by pin means. A pin means-carrying device is movable relative to the mould between a position in which the pin means are inserted in the mould and a position in which the pin means are in a withdrawn position relative to the mould. Actuating means shift the pin means-carrying device between said two positions and a releasable locking device locks the pin means-carrying device in the inserted position of the pin means.

25 415 (A),4l.l,4l(T).4l.2(D),1(M).2,118(M); 249 143, 86, 91,97

[54] APPARATUS FOR THE MASS-PRODUCTION 0F MOULDED CONCRETE ELEMENTS 10 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[51] Int.

[50] Field of PATENTED JUN28 I87! SHEET 3 OF 3 APPARATUS FOR THE MASS-PRODUCTION OF MOULDED CONCRETE ELEMENTS The present invention relates to apparatuses for the mechanized and automatic production of moulded concrete elements and in particular railway sleepers or ties.

The mechanized mass production of reinforced concrete elements presents serious problems when the elements must comprise hollow, passageways or other passages; this is the case in particular in concrete railway ties in which there must be provided vertical passages for the rail-fastening bolts and horizontal passages which define cavities in the concrete block of the tie and allow the water entering the vertical passage to flow out of the block.

Apparatuses are known in which the mould is an integral part of the moulding machine and can be easily permanently connected to a source of energy, as compressed air, oil under pressure or electricity, for positioning and extracting pins which form the required hollows and passages in the moulded element. However, the production of such elements requires several operations, namely: preparation of the mould, greasing, positioning the reinforcements and pins, filling, vibration of the concrete and finally inverting and stripping the mould. It will be readily understood that, in the case of a mould having a fixed station, the duration of a production cycle corresponds to the sum of the durations of all the successive elementary operations. To increase output, the apparatus must comprise at least twomoulds which are transferred in succession to each of a plurality of essential stations. In this way, the production time can be reduced to the duration of the longest elementary production operation. But in this case it is difficult to connect each mould to one of the aforementioned sources of energy for mechanically and automatically inserting and .extracting the pins. There results loss of time and a more complicated procedure of operation.

The object of the invention is to remedy these drawbacks. The invention provides a device for an apparatus moulding concrete elements in which hollows or passages must be formed by means of pins, said device enabling at least one pin to be placed in position in the mould and maintained in position during the moulding operation and extracted when stripping the mould, and comprising: a mould; pin-carrying means; first actuating means for bringing the pin-carrying means to a position relative to the mould in which the pin or each pin is inserted in the mould; a locking device for locking the pin-carrying means relative to the mould in the inserted position of the pin or pins, said device being releasable to permit the release of the pin or pins at the moment of stripping the mould; and second actuating means for returning the pincarrying means to a position, after unlocking, relative to the mould corresponding to the withdrawn position of thepin or pins so as to permit the stripping.

Owing to the invention, it is possible to place the pins in a fixed position and maintain them in this position in the mould, without the latter being permanently connected to a source of exterior energy, the extraction of the pins being effected automatically when stripping the mould by a mechanism independent of the mould without acting directly on the pin-carrying means.

Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for moulding reinforced concrete elements which comprises a mould-greasing station, a station for positioning at least one pin by means of the device defined hereinbefore, at least one station for positioning reinforcements a station filling the mould with concrete and tamping the concrete, and a mouldstripping station.

Further features and advantages of the invention will be ap parent from the ensuing description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, with parts cut away, of the device according to the invention employed in a mould for a composite reinforced concrete sleeper or tie, the means actuating the device being omitted for the sake of clarity;

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view, with parts cutaway, of the locking device in the locking position;

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of the actuating means for returning the pins to the withdrawn position;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view, with parts cutaway, of a greasing station, and

FIG. 5 is a diagram of the assembly of an apparatus according to the invention for producing railway sleepers or ties.

A device will be described for automatically positioning and extracting pins in a mould in the particular case of the production of concrete sleepers or ties similar to those described in French Pat. No. 1,429,382 filed on Jan. 13, 1965 by the Applicant. However, it must be understood that this device could be employed for producing concrete elements other than ties.

The apparatus in which the device according to the invention is incorporated is shown diagrammatically in FIG. 5, each reference letter designating one production stage.

At A a mould is inverted onto a mould-stripping surface; it travels in this position to a greasing station E (FIG. 4) reference to which will be made hereinafter; then the mould is upturned at C and shifted to station D for inserting pins and positioning a part of the reinforcement, this station being described in more detail with reference to F I68. I, 2 and 3, thereafter, the mould is brought to a station E in which the remaining reinforcements are positioned and in which the concrete is poured into the mould and tamped, and thereafter the mould is brought to station F where it is inverted on the mould-stripping surface G.

The invention will now be described with reference to FlGS. l, 2 and 3 and in particular to FIG. 1. ln the latter, a mould l is shown comprising two compartmentsl, 1", corresponding to the two blocks of a composite reinforced concrete sleeper or tie, these compartments being interconnected by two intermediate walls 2", 2".

Provided in the bottom of each compartment 1, 1' are bosses 3 for moulding bolt insertion passages. Other bosses or projections are provided on the bottom of the mould, but these are not visible in the drawing. Further, notches 4 are provided in the inner walls of the compartments 1", l for positioning a main reinforcement element constituting a stay between two concrete blocks.

The device comprises pin-carrying means or bar 5, which in the presently described embodiment is provided with two pins 6 per compartment 1, 1, these pins extending through the walls of the mould by way of apertures 7.

The pin-carrying bar is provided at both ends with reduced or narrowed portions 8 for extracting the pins by means of a mechanism a part of which is shown in FIG. 3. This mechanism consists of two subassemblies respectively mounted at the end of two arms of a gantry crane P of conventional construction which shifts the mould from the station E to the station F and then to the stations G, A, B, C, D in succession. Such a crane is well known and consequently has not been shown in detail.

Each of said subassemblies comprises a small motor-speed reducer unit 9 capable of driving in rotation a screw 10 which extends in a direction parallel to the direction of movement of the pin-carrying bar. Mounted on this screw is a nut 11 integral with a finger 12. The friction between the nut 11 and the screw is sufficient to connect the nut to this screw as concerns rotation when it is not prevented from rotating by other means. Two strips l3, 14 parallel to the screw 10 are also provided, these strips being respectively arranged to maintain the finger 12 in a position in which it is capable of acting on the corresponding end of the pin-carrying bar and in a position in which it is disengaged from this end.

In its middle part, the bar 5 carries a strip 15 which constitutes, with a rod 16 slidable in a housing 17, a locking device for the pin-carrying bar. The strip 15 and the rod 16 respectively comprise recesses 18 and 19. The recess 18 allows the rod to slide, in a given position of the bar, under the effect of a spring 20 which tends to urge the rod out of its housing 17. Retaining means (not shown) are provided for preventing the rod from escaping from its housing. The recess 19 allows the bar to slide in the rod in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the latter.

The device according to the invention is completed by two jacks 21 which are in a fixed position and serve to introduce the pins 6 into the mould.

The mould-greasing station B has been shown diagrammatically in FIG. 4. The greasing is carried out by spraying oil by means of nozzles 22 when the mould is inverted. This avoids the formation of puddles of oil in the hollow parts of the mould and ensures a correct greasing of the projecting parts. Excess oil is recovered in a sump 23.

The device operates in the following manner:

After having been greased at station B, the mould is upturned at station C and brought to the correct position relative to the jacks 21 of station D. The pin-carrying bar 5 is then in a position shown in FIG. 1, which corresponds to the withdrawn positions of the pins 6. After a special device (not shown) has disposed a part of the reinforcements in the mould, the jacks 21 are actuated and the pins 6 enter the mould by way of the apertures 7 and and the strip slides in the recess 19 shown in FIG. 2.

When the recess 18 of the strip 15 is in alignment with the pin 16, the spring biases the pin axially outwardly of the housing 17 and this locks the strip 15 in a position which corresponds to the correct positioning of the pins in the mould.

This mould can then be transferred to the following stations which will not be described in detail in this description.

The device according to the invention once again comes into action when the mould is to be stripped. When the mould is inverted at F onto the mold stripping surface G, the rod 16 which extends beyond the surface of the mould (FIG. 2) is urged into its housing 17. When the recess 19 is in front of the strip 15, the device is locked, the mould being then disposed on the handling crane P and the mechanism shown in FIG. 3 comes into action.

The motor-speed reducer unit 9 is fed so as to rotate the screw 10 in the clockwise direction (as viewed in FIG. 3). If it is assumed that the nut 11 is initially in the position shown in dotted line in FIG. 3, it is rotated by the screw until the finger l2 abuts the strip 13. Thenceforth, with continued rotation of the screw, the nut moves along the latter and the finger 12 engages the end of the pin-carrying bar 5 and shifts it to the position in which the pins 6 are withdrawn. This of course occurs simultaneously at both ends ofthe bar 5.

When the bar 5 has been brought to the position in which the pins are completely withdrawn, the direction of rotation of the motor 9 is reversed and the nut 11 and the finger l2 rotate through 90 with the screw until the finger abuts the strip 14. In this position, this finger is no longer engaged with the bar 5 and the mould can be stripped. As the screw continues to rotate, the nut and the finger are returned along the screw and the strip 14 to their initial position. When the series of the various operations has finished, a new cycle can commence.

The device just described permits the mechanized production, with remote control or by programmers, of reinforced concrete ties or other mass-produced concrete elements.

In such a production, the projection rate corresponds to the duration of the longest operation, each mould moving in succession to each station of the apparatus without being permanently connected to a source of energy. Consequently, there is a substantial increase in output over conventional production methods.

It will be clear that the pin-carrying means can also carry other elements such as conventional movable elements, for example serving to close the notches 4 for receiving the reinforcement stay in the mould, when this stay is in position.

Likewise, the locking device and the pin-carrying bar ac tuating means can be constructed in any suitable manner other than that described and illustrated.

Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been described, many modifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

lclaim:

I. A device for an apparatus having a plurality of stations corresponding to different operational steps for moulding a concrete element in which must be formed first passages and second passages communicating with the first passages, the concrete element being passed to each of said stations in succession, said device comprising: a mould adapted to be inverted from an upright position to an inverted position for withdrawing the concrete element; boss means for forming the first passages fixed to the mould and extending in directions parallel to a plane in which the concrete element is withdrawn from the mould; pin means for forming said second passages and movable between an inserted position in which the pin means extend inside the mould transversely of said plane and a withdrawn position in which the pin means allow the concrete element to be withdrawn from the mould in said plane; pin means-carrying device movable relative to the mould; first actuating means at one of said stations for bringing, when the mould is in said upright position, the pin means-carrying device to a position relative to the mould in which the pin means are in said inserted position; a locking device for locking the pin means-carrying device relative to the mould in the inserted position of the pin means, the locking device being adapted to be rendered inoperative upon said inversion of the mould to permit the release of the pin means, and second actuating means remote from said first actuating means at another of said stations for, when the mould is in said inverted position and after the locking device has been rendered inoperative, returning the pin means-carrying device to a position in which the pin means are in said withdrawn position so as to permit the withdrawal of the concrete element from the mould.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first actuating means have a fixed position at a moulding station of the apparatus and the pin means-carrying device is adapted to remain in one unit with the mould.

3. A device for an apparatus for moulding a concrete element in which hollows or passages must be formed by pin means, said device comprising: a mould; pin means insertable in the mould; pin means-carrying device movable relative to the mould; first actuating means for bringing the device to a position relative to the mould in which the pin means are inserted in the mould; a locking device for locking the pin means-carrying device relative to the mould in the inserted position of the pin means, the locking device being releasable to permit the release of the pin means at the moment of stripping the mould, second actuating means for returning the pin means-carrying device to a position, after unlocking, rela tive to the mould corresponding to the withdrawn position of the pin means so as to permit the stripping of the mould, a crane for handling the mould, the second actuating means being mounted on the crane, the crane comprising a screw which is substantially parallel to the direction of movement of the pin means relative to the mould, a reversible drive mechanism for rotating said screw, a nut cooperating with said screw and adapted to rotate with said screw when the nut is in the free state and to move axially along said screw when the nut is prevented from rotating with said screw, a finger integral with said nut, and abutment means for maintaining said finger in either of two angular positions relative to said screw, one of said angular positions corresponding to engagement with and actuation of said pin means-carrying device by said finger and the other of said angular positions corresponding to a disengagement of said finger from said pin means-carrying device to permit stripping the mould.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said abutment means comprise two strips which are substantially perpendicular to each other and extend alongside said screw.

5. A device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the pin meanscarrying device has narrowed end portions so as to define therebetween and the mould a free space for the passage of said fingers.

6. A device as claimed in claim I, wherein the locking device comprises an actuating device which extends beyond the face of the mould which comes in contact with a mouldstripping surface when stripping the mould, whereby said locking device is unlocked automatically when said mould comes in contact with said mould-stripping surface.

7. A device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the locking device comprises a member integral with said pin means-carrying device and extending toward the mould, a pin constituting said actuating device and slidably mounted on the mould and extending in a direction perpendicular to said member, said rod being biased outwardly of the mould by elastically yieldable means and comprising a recess in which said member is slidable in one direction, said member comprising a recess adapted to allow said actuating device to move in a direction perpendicular to said direction in which said member is slidable relative to the mould.

8. An apparatus for moulding reinforced concrete elements in which hollows or passages must be provided by pin means, of the type in which a mould is shifted'in succession from one station to another, said apparatus comprising a mould-greasing station, a station comprising a device for positioning the pin means in the mould, at least one station for positioning reinforcements, a station for filling the mould with concrete and tamping the concrete, and a mould-stripping station, said device comprising pin means insertable in the mould; pin means-carrying device movable relative to the mould; first actuating means for bringing the device to a pin means-carrying position relative to the mould in which the pin means are inserted in the mould, a locking device for locking the pin means-carrying device relative to the mould in the inserted position of the pin means, the locking device being releasable to pennit the release of the pin means at the moment of stripping the mould; and second actuating means for returning the pin means-carrying device to a position, after unlocking, relative to the mould corresponding to the withdrawn position of the pin means so as to permit the stripping of the mould.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the greasing station comprises nozzles for spraying oil, the jets of oil from the nozzles being directed upwardly and the mould being disposed above said nozzles in an inverted position, that is, with its open face downwards.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, for producing reinforced concrete railway sleepers or ties. 

